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Supreme Leader Snoke may be comparable to Emperor Palpatine in that Andy Serkis’ humanoid alien has been angled as the ultimate big bad of Disney’s current Star Wars saga, but whereas the prequels outlined every step of Palpatine’s rise (descent?) into Darth Sidious, Rian Johnson has vowed to exercise some restraint when it comes to Snoke and his place in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Because let’s face it: when you know all there is to know about a movie monster, suddenly it isn’t so scary. As for the creative process involved in bringing Snoke to life, Andy Serkis recently spoke to Business Insider (via ComicBook.com) about his screen villain and, specifically, what it was like to develop Snoke’s booming voice. “When I found you, I sensed raw, untamed power. And beyond that, something truly special.”

First off, here’s Andy Serkis on approaching the big bad during The Force Awakens:

When I first worked on it with [The Force Awakens director] J.J. [Abrams] there was an evolving design of the character. It was going through lots of changes.

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But for all of Snoke’s formidable might, Serkis went on to tease his character’s inherent vulnerability, which is essentially plastered all over his warped, grossly disfigured face.

But it’s all about where a character carries his pain, or aggression, or emotional centers, and with Snoke it was very much there [putting his hands to the back of his head]. And his skull has got this big scar in the front, so for me it was a fracturing. He’s got this cleft in his head and I think it’s very painful for him to speak and yet there’s an imperiousness about him. He’s severely damaged but there’s a vulnerability that’s he’s trying to cover so that was sort of what I was trying to do.

If Snoke was confined to a massive hologram in The Force Awakens, expect Andy Serkis’ tyrant to step out of the shadows in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. December 15th is the date for your diaries.